How to Assess Candidates’ Cognitive Skills Online?

Cognitive assessment these days holds major importance for the busy job market in enabling one to find the right individuals who will learn, problem-solve, and be able to adapt to newer challenges. With remote hiring coming into full swing, the conduction of such assessments has taken an online practical approach. This worthwhile reading looks at cognitive skills, why they are so important, how to set up an online assessment of such skills, and common errors one makes while assessing a candidate’s cognitive ability.

Table of Contents

What Is A Cognitive Skills & Ability Assessment?

A cognitive skills and ability test is designed to measure the mental Proficiency of an individual, reasoning, learning, critical thinking, and solving problems. In contrast to technical skills tests or personality assessments, these tests assess the underlying mental processes that underpin many aspects of job performance and enable individuals to learn and absorb new information and approaches at work. Cognitive assessments typically cover a range of verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, logical thinking, and memory relevant to job performance across most jobs.

5 Important Cognitive Skills to Look for in A Good Employee

Problem-Solving skills
A good problem-solving skill implies that a person can identify an issue, reflects on it, and weighs options to select what is perceived as the best course of action. Problematic issues crop up unexpectedly and require a skill level that will enable such an employee to solve them.

Critical thinking
Critical thinking affects the extent to which employees can logically analyze a situation, make evidence-based decisions, and solve complex problems with core competence in strategic roles.

Attention to detail
The attention to detail provided by the employees maintains high standards of quality, accuracy, and completion, with no critical information overlooked.

Memory retention
Strong retention merely refers to the fact that employees will remember facts, processes, and procedures more effectively, thereby allowing less frequent retraining and fewer errors.

Adaptability
Adaptability is one of the most vital elements of success in fast-paced working environments today. Those who can adapt more confidently to newer tasks, tools, or systems will continue to offer value to the team.

How to Create A Cognitive Skills Assessment in OnlineExamMaker?

With tools such as OnlineExamMaker, creating an online cognitive skills assessment is pretty straightforward.

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Here’s how you do it:

1. Signing up and account setup

First off, start by creating an account on OnlineExamMaker.com. After logging in, you can access templates to help create your exam.

2. Define the skills to test

Determine which cognitive skills are most relevant to the position you are trying to fill and then select modules that assess verbal reasoning, logical thinking, problem-solving, or memory.

3. Design interactive questions

These questions should be in different types, such as multiple-choice, true/false, and short answers, for the evaluation of the candidate’s cognitive abilities. The candidate should be posed with questions that are relevant to the type of skill a job demands. In OnlineExamMaker Question Edior, you are allowed to add video or video into the congitive assessment to delive interactive testing experience to candidates.

4. Establish scoring selection criteria

Adjust the scoring system to reflect the importance of each skill that is being tested in the activity. OnlineExamMaker has functionality for assigning a point value and setting different difficulties for questions.

5. Test and share

When your test is prepared, do a mock run to ensure everything goes well. Then, distribute the link to your assessment to candidates and track their progress in real-time.

3 Mistakes to Avoid in Making a Cognitive Skills Assessment

1. Overcomplicating the test
While it is necessary to challenge candidates, avoid making the test too technical or complicated. Tests that are too complicated can upset applicants and also give an incorrect insight into their personality.

2. Testing irrelevant skills
Ensure that the cognitive abilities tested are related to the job requirements. Testing irrelevant abilities will lead to poor decision-making and may fail to recognize the applicant’s major strengths.

3. Neglecting result analysis
It’s not enough to simply collect test results—carefully analyze them in the context of the role you’re hiring for. Failing to do so can result in missing out on top candidates.

Cognitive skills assessments are, thus, very important in hiring because they give insight into problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and the cognitive capacity of a candidate. With assessments in place, informed decisions could be made by employers, which would result in smarter hires, better teams, and higher productivity.

Among these myriad options, one stands out: OnlineExamMaker. This platform is a recent development, and it works to make this process of creating and conducting cognitive ability tests as easy as pie for any organization irrespective of the scale. These are made very user-friendly so that even a person with less technical knowledge will find working with the platform quite easy.

Make your recruitment process smooth with OnlineExamMaker, and henceforth start selecting the best candidates for your organization!

Author: Matt Davis

Matt is a content marketing specialist with more than 5 years of experience in content creation, he is glad to share his experience about online education and digital marketing.